Thursday, May 26, 2011

A campaign to save catchers

^It's time for MLB to make a significant rule change to protect the most vulnerable player on the field.

Catcher Buster Posey is the San Francisco Giants' best player. He will miss the rest of the season due to injuries suffered on a totally unnecessary home-plate collision.

Notice I said "totally unnecessary," not dirty. What Marlins baserunner Scott Cousins did -- absolutely obliterate Posey, who was blocking the plate as he waited for a throw -- was completely legal by baseball rules.

What I'm saying is it shouldn't be legal.

A catcher shouldn't be allowed to block the plate while waiting for a throw any more than a second baseman should. And a baserunner should have to slide or otherwise avoid collision with the catcher.

Traditionalists no doubt will wail: "The catcher blocking the plate and the runner crashing into the catcher always has been part of baseball! Leave tradition alone!"

OK ... you know what else used to be traditional in baseball? No black players. No batting helmets. Players being indentured servants, tied to their teams for life. Spitballs not only permitted but encouraged. No ballclubs west of St. Louis. Trading cards, marketed to kids, in packs of cigarettes. Home runs awarded for balls bouncing over the wall. Gloves that looked like rags. Betting scandals. Pitchers being over-used and then discarded by their teams.

To name a few wonderful traditions.

Tradition almost always is the most idiotic reason to resist change.

Look, these guys get paid way too much money to be put in harm's way every single game. It makes no sense -- financially, physically, morally and every other "ly" one can think of.^

1 comment:

that last was pretty funny...i hate collisions of any kind outside of football (and i believe that playing football should be limited to 10 years total in a lifetime) one of the reasons why i quite watching basketball is because of the street play that got drug into the game (i mean players end up bloody for god's sake)...i think even sliding into base should be outlawed...i mean they outlawed throwing at the batter....it is about scoring runes...